With approximately 80% of its population living on less than US$2 a day, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas. The major earthquake that struck the country in 2010 seriously damaged the economy, especially its agriculture, which contributes 25% to the gross domestic product (GDP) and employs almost 58% of the labor force. As if this were notRead More …

The Spanish language news site BBC Mundo has featured six CIAT projects as part of a 12-picture photo gallery to mark Earth Day. The gallery covers CIAT work with water harvesting in Central America; biofortification, climate change resilience, site-specific agriculture, and gene bank conservation in Colombia. Click below to find out more – if your Spanish is up toRead More …

A new report has found that targeted mango production in Haiti could be one way to help smallholder farmers boost their incomes. Produced by CIAT in partnership with Catholic Relief Services, the report looks at opportunities for developing the mango value chain in the Caribbean nation, which is struggling to recover from last year’s devastating earthquake. It identifies opportunitiesRead More …

Traditional vehicle could drive nationwide knowledge sharing exercise After recruiting more than a thousand farmers in its first year, an ambitious CIAT initiative to improve fruit production in Colombia through large-scale knowledge sharing, is about to be driven, quite literally, into its next phase. The Site-Specific Agriculture based on Farmers’ Experiences (SSAFE) project could see the highly anticipated launchRead More …

CIAT’s Andy Jarvis was delighted to get surprise chance to talk to Colombia’s president Alvaro Uribe about the organisation’s “revolutionary” new fruit project, last week. Uribe, who leaves office this week after completing two consecutive terms as president, visited CIAT and Asohofrucol’s exhibition stand at the Agro Del Pacífico 2010 trade fair at the three-day event in Cali onRead More …

An ambitious new project that could help transform horticulture in Colombia – by the power of knowledge alone – is underway. From August 2010, fruit producers from all over the country will begin recording precise information about their farming practices. The aim is to build a detailed national knowledge bank to help them improve and increase production. TheSite-Specific AgricultureRead More …

An ambitious new project to record the experiences of thousands of smallholder farmers in Colombia to help establish optimum growing conditions for tropical fruits in the country, is to begin imminently, following an USD $1.6m grant from Asohofrucol (the Association of Fruit and Vegetable Growers in Colombia). The Site-Specific Agriculture based on Farmers Experiences (SSAFE) project aims to documentRead More …